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Dagelijks archief 13 maart 2017

Women hold a banner as they take part in a protest marking the International Women’s Day outside the United Nations offices in Sanaa, Yemen, March 8, 2017

This month the war in Yemen is 2 years old. It pits a coalition of mostly wealthy Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia, supporting President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government against a ragged alliance of Houthi Shiite rebels and backers of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who enjoy Iranian support. Despite occasional claims that victory is near by the Saudi-backed Hadi loyalists, there is little prospect for the war to end. The Yemeni people, the poorest in Arabia, are paying a terrible price.

The war is Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud’s war. Salman had just ascended to the throne in early 2015 after the death of his brother Abdullah. Salman had just made his favorite son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, defense minister. The Houthi rebels chased Hadi out of Sanaa and seemed poised to take the whole country. Hadi fled in exile to Riyadh. The Houthis opened direct commercial flights from Sanaa to Tehran, Saudi Arabia’s nemesis, and took other steps to strengthen their longstanding but limited ties to Iran.

Riyadh panicked. Salman feared an Iranian puppet state on his most vulnerable border, with 27 million Yemenis under Iranian influence demanding a fair distribution of the Arabian Peninsula’s wealth. The Saudis announced creation of a coalition to back Hadi and return him to power in Sanaa. Some of the announced partners, including Oman, Yemen’s only other neighbor, and Pakistan, quickly made it clear that they were not joining the war. The Pakistani parliament even voted unanimously to stay out of the war. Salman has not visited Muscat since; he has been to every other Gulf Cooperation Council capital and his monthlong trip this month to Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, China and the Maldives flies over Oman en route to the Arab summit in Jordan.

It quickly became clear that the young defense minister had no game plan for victory or an endgame for the war. The mission was titled Operation Decisive Storm, but two years later there is no decision. The young prince originally was the public face of the campaign; now he prefers to discuss his ambitious plans to oversee the kingdom’s economic transformation to Saudi 2030. The Saudi border towns have borne the burden of the Houthis’ counterstrikes with rockets and missiles. Reporters are not allowed to visit.

The Saudis and the Emiratis did succeed in keeping the rebels from taking Aden. After prolonged conflict, the Hadi government has been installed in most of the former South Yemen, although its control is tenuous outside Aden. Hadi spokesmen say victory is close. One promised that the fall of Sanaa is imminent this month. This seems unlikely.

Even if the Saudis take back Sanaa, the kingdom will face a prolonged, possibly endless, struggle to pacify the Houthis. The Saudis have been battling the Houthis for over a decade along the border in a series of small campaigns that go back to 2004. Then the Saudis were Saleh’s ally. The Zaydi Shiite majority in the north has a deep aversion to the Saudis’ Sunni Wahhabism.

Salman’s father, King Ibn Saud, and all his brothers who have ruled since 1953 recognized that Yemen is a morass that can suck in resources. Ibn Saud fought a war with Yemen in the 1930s but kept his goals limited. His successors often found Yemeni politics and politicians to be frustrating and unresponsive to Saudi influence. All avoided getting into an open-ended conflict.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has been a beneficiary of the war. That is why the new US administration has conducted more airstrikes against AQAP targets since January than the Obama administration did in all of 2016. Attacking al-Qaeda makes sense — it is a dangerous threat to our interests — but it is a sideshow in the Yemeni war. As long as the war continues, AQAP will find plenty of ungoverned space to thrive in and plenty of angry Yemeni recruits.

Iran is the biggest beneficiary. Its support to the Houthis costs it very little. A handful of Iranian and Hezbollah advisers and some weapons transferred is a pittance for Tehran. But it gains propaganda advantage by helping the Yemenis against the Saudis. It gains from bogging down its rival in a conflict that is strategically crucial to Riyadh and marginal to Tehran. And it would like to see America bogged down in Yemen, too.

The United Nations has tried to get a lasting cease-fire and begin a political process. But the guidelines provided hastily by the UN Security Council at the start of the war are hopelessly tilted toward the Saudi position because all the major powers wanted to court the new king. Ironically, only Russia argued that the resolution was one-sided. In any case, none of the Yemeni parties has shown any significant willingness to compromise, and the Saudis are unwilling to force Hadi to step aside. So the diplomacy is as stalemated as the war.

America and Britain have provided the aircraft and munitions that the Royal Saudi Air Force has been using to bomb the infrastructure of Yemen for two years. A minority in Congress has tried to block arms transfers and sales but they are unlikely to succeed. Nonetheless, criticism of the Saudi war is growing around the world.

The war is a costly one for the kingdom, especially when oil prices remain low. No reliable figures are available about the costs of the Saudi war. Riyadh provides no figures. The Saudis fund not only their own military campaign but the costs of their Yemeni allies and many of their coalition partners such as Sudan. Saudi Arabia had the third-largest defense and security budget in the world in the first year of the war (2015), according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and while the Yemeni war is only a part of the Saudis’ military spending, it is a burden far beyond what a nation of only 20 million citizens can sustain.

The Yemeni people were the poorest in the Arab world before the war. Now, according to UNICEF, a Yemeni child dies every 10 minutes from severe malnutrition and other problems linked to the war and the Saudi blockade of the north. Many others are stunted for life by malnutrition. The humanitarian costs are staggering and they will have a long political legacy.

Several members of the new American administration have experience with Yemen, including the secretaries of state and defense. Now is the time for a thorough interagency policy review of Yemen. While terribly poor, Yemen is strategically important as the underbelly of Saudi Arabia and the guardian of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait through which most of the West’s oil imports pass. The prime American interest is to help our oldest ally in the region, Saudi Arabia, find a way out of a conflict that is not working out in its own interests. Our other urgent interest is to stop the carnage against the Yemeni people. Diplomacy is the answer, but it will need to be American-led with conviction and consequences.

Palestinians in Ramallah and other cities took to the streets yesterday to demonstration against the PA’s security coordination with Israel

After yesterday’s violent crackdown by Palestinian security forces, unions are planning to organise further action to protest against the Palestinian Authority’s posthumous trial of activist Basel Al-Araj.

In a statement, Naser Abu Baker, head of the Journalists’ Syndicate, announced a one-day boycott of the official news coverage in protest of the PA’s attack on journalists.

The syndicate may extend its boycott until police officers responsible for the violence are prosecuted, the statement said.

It invited journalists in the occupied West Bank to cover a stand-in due to take place today in Ramallah, and advised them to wear press vests, helmets and gas masks in an expression of anger.

“The manner in which [yesterday’s] attacks happened is absolutely not decent, not just for us as reporters, but for the Palestinian society which is still under occupation and seeking freedom and emancipation,” Naser said, calling the PA’s action “disgraceful and shameful”.

The Palestinian Bar Association, for its part, will be running a general strike whereby the affiliate lawyers will suspend work at all courts, government institutions and at the public prosecutor’s offices across the occupied West Bank as a result of the PA security forces’ assault on citizens, journalists and lawyers.

The association’s statement pointed out that what happened was “a serious attack on the right to peaceful assembly and public opinion,” stressing the need for authorities to hold accountable those who ordered or are involved in the crackdown.

Palestinians in Ramallah and other cities took to the streets yesterday to demonstration against the PA’s security coordination with Israel and the posthumous trial of Al-Araj who was killed by Israeli forces last week. A number of demonstrators were beaten or detained during the protests, including Al-Araj’s father.

Israeli police shot and killed a 25-year-old Palestinian near the Lion’s Gate entrance to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City early this morning after he allegedly stabbed two Israeli police officers, who were lightly and moderately injured.

The man was identified as Ibrahim Mahmoud Matar, a resident of the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Al-Mukabbir, located south of the Old City.

The shooting happened ahead of the Muslim dawn prayers, as worshipers were headed to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Police ‘controlling the situation’

Witnesses told Ma’an they witnessed a dispute inside an Israeli police post located near Lion’s Gate between an Israeli policeman and a Palestinian “who was carrying a stick”.

Israeli police then forced the young man outside of the enclosure and “executed” him at point blank range with four bullets, leading to his immediate death, witnesses said.

Referring to the dispute that led to the shooting, eyewitnesses told Ma’an that Israeli police were “controlling the situation” and could have easily detained Matar without using lethal force.

However, a statement released by Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Al-Samri alleged that Matar entered the police post with a knife and stabbed two Israeli police officers before a third shot and killed him immediately.

According to Al-Samri, Matar had arrived to the area in his car, which he parked near Lion’s Gate. Israeli border police stopped him as he tried to walk through Lion’s Gate and led him into the police room to search him, when he “attacked” two Israeli border police officers that were inside.

A third officer was able to leave the room, and then shot and killed Matar, the police statement said.

Al-Samri said the first officer sustained moderate injuries, while the second was slightly injured. They were both taken to a hospital for medical treatment.

Lockdown

Following the killing, there was a heavy deployment of Israeli forces in and around Lion’s Gate and many Palestinians were prevented from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray, with witnesses saying the lockdown lasted from 04:30 until 06:00.

Later Monday morning, Israeli forces raided Matar’s home in Jabal Al-Mukabbir and detained his brother, parents and his uncle, according to locals and Israeli police.

Following the raid, Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said in a written statement that Israeli police were carrying out “general security measures” in public areas across Jerusalem as celebrations for the Jewish holiday of Purim were scheduled throughout the day, and that investigations into the shooting were ongoing.

HEBRON (Ma’an) — A Palestinian teenager was detained at gunpoint by Israeli forces in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Sunday, with local activists claiming that the detention could have taken a deadly turn if the encounter had not been filmed.

Muhammad Munif Yousif Qazzaz, a 15-year-old resident of the Hebron-area village Dura, was detained while passing through the Israeli checkpoint to enter al-Shuhada Street in Hebron’s Old City early on Sunday evening.

Zeidan al-Sharabati, an activist with the group Human Rights Defenders, was on the scene at the time and started filming the events.

The footage shows one of the Israeli soldiers approaching Qazzaz with a knife in his hand, which Badi al-Dweik, another Human Rights Defenders activist, alleged was proof that Israeli forces were planning on planting a knife on the scene and claiming it belonged to the Palestinian youth.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that they were looking into the reports.

Al-Dweik claimed that Israeli soldiers would likely have killed Qazzaz if they had not noticed that al-Sharabati was filming the events.

A wave of unrest that first began in October 2015 has left some 250 Palestinians and 35 Israelis killed.

Amid the unrest, rights groups have disputed Israel’s version of events in a number of cases, denouncing what they have termed as a “shoot-to-kill” policy against Palestinians who did not constitute a threat at the time of their death, or who could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner — amid a backdrop of impunity for Israeli forces who have committed the killings.

Eyewitnesses have also said in a number of cases that Israeli security forces planted knives on slain Palestinians to claim that they were acting in self-defense during a stabbing attack.

Al-Dweik said that after the killing of Palestinian Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif was caught on camera by Human Rights Defenders member Imad Abu Shamsiya in March 2016, the group had increased its efforts to capture Israeli violations of human rights on camera.

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — After an Israeli policeman shot and killed Ibrahim Matar in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City early Monday morning for allegedly committing a stabbing attack against two other officers, members of Matar’s family have demanded that Israeli authorities release security camera footage of the incident, insisting that the 25-year-old blacksmith was “executed in cold blood.”

While Israeli police claimed that “a terrorist” stabbed and injured two officers with knife, locals said they witnessed a dispute between Matar and police while he was being detained inside a police post near the entrance to Al-Aqsa Mosque, insisting that the altercation was “under control” and that Matar could have been detained without the use of lethal force.

Witnesses made no mention of a knife being in Matar’s possession and said they saw the young man “carrying a stick,” while Israeli police released a photo purporting to show the knife used in the alleged attack.

Following the killing, Israeli forces were heavily deployed in and around Lion’s Gate and prevented many Palestinians from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque to pray, with witnesses saying the lockdown lasted from 4:30 until 6 a.m.

Israeli forces also raided Matar’s home in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabbir and detained his brother, parents, and his uncle.

Furthermore, Israeli police said they prevented a residence in the neighborhood from installing a mourning tent commemorating Matar.

Members of Matar’s family told Ma’an later on Monday that the young man was heading to Al-Aqsa Mosque to attend dawn prayers when he was detained by police, rejecting the police narrative that he was there to commit an attack.

His uncle Ayoub Matar said in an interview that Ibrahim attended dawn prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque every day, and would return home afterwards to have breakfast with his grandmother in Jabal al-Mukabbir.

Ayoub said that he only learned of the killing after Israeli forces raided Jabal al-Mukabbir and broke into Ibrahim’s home.

He said the raid was carried out in a “horrifying manner,” with Israeli forces preventing locals from going near the house.

After searching and ransacking the home, Israeli police detained both of Ibrahim’s parents, his brother Rida, and his uncle Mahmoud.

When the raid was finished, Israeli forces locked the house and took the keys with them, Ayoub said.

He added that while the family had not witnessed the circumstances of the killing, they were sure that Ibrahim Matar had been “executed in cold blood,” and demanded that Israeli authorities release security camera footage documenting the incident.

Ayoub described his nephew as “a calm man who was not affiliated with any political faction. He was committed to his work as blacksmith with his father.”

Suleiman Shqeirat, the head of a committee established to defend Palestinian land and homes in Jabal al-Mukabbir, said the police’s detention and subsequent shooting of Matar amounted to a “field execution” which was being falsely presented by authorities as a terrorist attack.

Shqeirat also noted that the Israeli police published video that only showed blood inside of the police post taken during the shooting’s aftermath, but that recordings documenting the incident itself were not published.

Since a wave of unrest began in October 2015, which left some 250 Palestinians and 35 Israelis killed, rights groups have disputed Israel’s version of events in a number of cases, denouncing what they have termed as a “shoot-to-kill” policy against Palestinians who did not constitute a threat at the time of their death, or who could have been subdued in a non-lethal manner — amid a backdrop of impunity for Israeli forces who have committed the killings.

Israel’s response to attacks have meanwhile be denounced as “collective punishment” and illegal under international law.

The PPS statement also noted the detention of Mahmoud Matar and his wife later Monday morning, who were detained after their son Ibrahim was shot and killed in occupied East Jerusalem in what the Matar family has called a “cold blooded execution.” Ibrahim’s brother Rida and his uncle Mahmoud were also detained in the raid.

In the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, PPS said that three Palestinians were detained, identified as Malik al-Jabari from Hebron city, Rabi Jawad al-Zaaqiq from Beit Ummar northwest of Hebron, and 48-year-old Salim Mahmoud Tarayra from the village of Bani Naim northeast of Hebron, who is the father of 16-year-old Issa Tarayra — killed by Israeli forces last September.

An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the three detentions, claiming that al-Jabari was detained for being a “Hamas operative.”

In the Jordan Valley village of al-Jiflik north of Jericho, Israeli forces detained Ibrahim Saleem Abu Dalakh, Mohamad Ghayth Abu Dalakh, Nawaf Jahalin, and Yassir Abu Hattab, according to PPS.

An Israeli army spokesperson only confirmed two detentions in al-Jiftlik.

Israeli forces also detained Tariq Maher Zakarna from Qabatiya in the Jenin district, 31-year-old Mohamad al-Zghari Suliman Abu Jaber from Tulkarem, and Jumaa al-Dusqi from al-Jalazun refugee camp near Ramallah. An Israeli army spokesperson only confirmed the detentions in Qabaitya and al-Jalazun.

Israeli forces carry out detention raids across the occupied Palestinian territory on a near-nightly basis, with the UN recording an average of 95 weekly raids in the West Bank in 2016, and 73 weekly raids on average thus far in 2017.

Israel commonly detains family members of Palestinians slain while committing attacks or alleged attacks, a practice that has been widely condemned as collective punishment and illegal under international law.

The Mossawa Centre, an advocacy centre for Arab citizens in Israel, said in a statement that “the Kaminitz bill, which will increase home demolitions and further criminalise unauthorised housing and construction, is expected to pass its final reading in the Knesset before March 20, 2017.”

The advocacy centre said that this measure was ordered by Netanyahu’s office, noting that “the bill entered its second reading in the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee on 30 January and it is expected to pass on March 16.”

Explaining how the Israeli occupation authorities have restricted the expansion of the Arab communities in Israel, the Mossawa Centre said: “The State of Israel has allocated lands and provided planning services for over six hundred Jewish communities since its establishment in 1948.”

Comparing this to what is happening for Arabs, the NGO said: “Yet Israel has not created a single Arab locality, aside from the seven it established to concentrate the Bedouin community in the south. Meanwhile, the government refuses to recognise many of the pre-existing Arab villages.”

It also noted that Israel has shown a “deliberate unwillingness to approve master plans for Arab localities and distribute building permits [that] has given rise to a housing shortage in official Arab localities, as well, leaving many with no option other than to build and inhabit structures that are not officially recognised.”

The Mossawa Centre called on MKs “to focus their attention on the roots of unauthorised construction and, in turn, propose and support amendments to the Kaminitz bill that will provide a sustainable solution for those living in unrecognised settings.”

Lanning was detained immediately upon his arrival in order not to be allowed to enter Israel or occupied territories. He is expected to board a plane back to his country today.

Israeli authorities claimed that they detained Lanning because he poses a threat on the Israeli occupation state as he heads the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

According to an Israeli statement, the PSC, led by Lanning, is the leading force in the effort to delegitimise Israel in Britain and among the biggest in Europe.

The PSC, the statement claimed, cooperates “with other delegitimising organisations to promote the boycott [of Israel] and other activities against the state of Israel.” The statement refers to the BDS movement.

One of the reasons that Israel considers PSC an illegitimate group is the fact that some of its members took part in the Mavi Marmara Flotilla, which aimed to break the Israeli siege on Gaza in 2010 but pirated by the Israeli commando and all activists on board were kidnapped.

Lanning visited the Gaza Strip in 2012 via Egypt, when the freely-elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi ruled the country. Therefore, Israel accuses Lanning of maintaining ties with Hamas, the movement, which was freely elected by the Palestinians to rule the occupied territories.

Last week, the Israeli Knesset approved a law that would automatically deny entry to people who support boycotts against Israel and support Palestinians, or who represent an organisation that does so, unless the Israeli interior minister chooses to allow them in.

The Israeli narrative about the murder is similar to other murders as the Israeli occupation forces always claim that they only shot to death the Palestinians who put the life of the Israelis at risk

Israeli occupation forces murdered on Monday at night Palestinian youth in Jerusalem’s Old City over claims he stabbed two policemen.

Eyewitnesses told Days of Palestine that the Palestinian youth, who was identified as Ibrahim Matar, 25, wanted to enter into Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Lion Gate.

“He underwent inhumane search by the Israeli occupation police” one of the eyewitnesses said.

“Then, clashes with hands between the Palestinian and the Israeli police erupted that ended when an Israeli policeman shot the Palestinian youth to death,” the eyewitness explained.

Spokeswomen of the Israeli Police Luba al-Samri claimed that the Palestinian clashed with the Israeli police after they requested him to be searched.

Al-Samri claimed that the Palestinian took off a knife from his pocket and stabbed two soldiers, causing minor injuries for them.

The Israeli narrative about the murder is similar to other murders as the Israeli occupation forces always claim that they only shot to death the Palestinians who put the life of the Israelis at risk.

In the wake of the incident, the Israeli occupation forces raided Jabal al-Mukaber neighourhood in Jerusalem’s Old City, broke into the house of the Palestinian martyr, damaged its furniture and kidnapped a number of his relatives.